Lock wire hex nuts are conventional hex nuts having holes drilled through one or more outer hex lobes in the hex nut to receive a lock wire which can be secured to a adjacent fixed structure to prevent the nuts from loosening and rotating in service. The drilling of a lock wire hole in a hex nut in the past has been an awkward and time consuming task, often resulting in broken drill or a scraped part because of the inherent difficulties in the task. The lock wire hole in the hex nut lobe is drilled at a thirty degree angle to the face of the nut and this sharp angle often results in drilling problems because the angle of the nut face tends to devert the line of action of the drill, often resulting in broken drills and possible a damaged part.
Drill jigs and commercially produced machines for aiding in the drilling for the lock wire holes have somewhat improved the process, but difficulties are still encountered. The angle of the nut face still tends to divert the line of action of the drill resulting in either a broken drill or an imperfect hole through the lock wire nut lobe, and the drill bit tends to become quickly clogged with drill chips since the diameter of the lock wire hole is usually on the order of 1/16th of an inch. The set up time to install the lock wire nut in the drilling jig has proven to be excessive and is such a tedious and slow operation that operators despise the job and try to avoid it. Thus, the art has long sought in vain and apparatus for drilling lock wire holes in lock wire nuts that is fast and easy, requires little set up time, does not result in excessive breakage of drill bits and operates the drilling cycle automatically to free the operator for deburring the nuts through the drilling cycle of the next nut.